Google

We haven’t yet seen too many apps that can stream content to Chromecast dongles, but all that is likely to change over the next month or two as Google has scheduled a Chromecast ‘hackathon’ at its Mountain View HQ next month, reports Engadget.

Google has invited several developers including CyanogenMod / AirCast dev Koushik Dutta and Thomas Kjeldsen to a hackathon on December 7th and 8th in Mountain View. An opportunity to test drive the “upcoming release” of the Cast SDK is promised, plus an opportunity to talk with Google engineers about what it can do … 
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Google today announced that it’s releasing an all-new Google Translate app for Android. The app features a new design, adds support for additional languages, and introduces some interesting new features to make translations even faster.

The app now makes it easy to have translated conversation with someone at the tap of a button and also adds gesture support for quickly switching between languages:
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You want to get these for every member of your Google-paranoid family for the holidays. Oh, Microsoft. [$8 Microsoft Store]

Don’t want a mug? Microsoft has some propaganda apparel for you:

Click to enlarge

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[tweet https://twitter.com/fakeninjitsu/statuses/403014466767691776]

Thanks to a tipster tweet, the boys at Android Central are reporting Android 4.4 KitKat is now en route to Nexus 4 smartphones. The update weighs in at a manageable 238MB and will of course add all the candy-tasting goodness Android 4.4 brings to the Android world.

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Say hello to Google Newsstand, a brand new app for your Android phone or tablet which brings together all of your favorite news sources in one place. Do you subscribe to magazines, newspapers, blogs and news sites? Of course you do and Google is putting all of the full length articles, complete with images, audio and video right inside the app. Articles will be available for offline reading or can be bookmarked to read later.

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HTC’s trend of Android update transparency continued yesterday with hints that Android 4.4 KitKat will arrive stateside on the HTC One before the end of January. In response to a customer inquiry, HTC’s @htcusa account responded “In North America, we plan to deliver Kit Kat (including Sense 5.5) to HTC One customers by the end of January.”

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Android Police reports that Samsung is offering a $50 Google Play Store credit to owners of its Galaxy Note 3 phablet.

The good news is that, unlike most promotions, this one appears to apply to existing owners – a welcome unexpected bonus. The bad news is that it’s U.S. only. Full details of how to get your credit below the fold … 
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There’s been a lot of discussion about the “new” Google under Larry Page and whether they are a stronger company, a leaner company, or a company finding new direction. As is usually the case with the Twittersphere, a retweet brought a link to Erik McClure’s blog post where he discusses Google and its “decline.”

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Fresh from the Motorola Blog, it appears that Motorola will launch its first Android 4.4 KitKat update on Verizon first, with rollouts starting today. The KitKat update brings:

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Vint Cerf, one of the two men known as “fathers of the internet” and Chief Evangelist at Google talks the future at a Federal Trade Commission conference. It’s an interesting look at the past, present and future of the “internet” of things from a man who has an incredibly deep resume.

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According to some recent discoveries in Android’s open source code, Google is working on a new camera API for Android. Hip hip hooray! The code first discovered by Josh Brown and reported via Ars Technica on Google+ looks to originate as far back as December of last year which would make it appear that KitKat was a viable target for launch.

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Google has done a U-turn on its previous policy of stopping short of directly interfering with search results and is now actively trapping more than 100,000 searches for material which constitutes child abuse, reports UK newspaper the Daily Mail.

The world’s biggest media firm has agreed to introduce changes which will prevent depraved images and videos from appearing for more than 100,000 different searches.

The company’s chairman Eric Schmidt, writing in today’s Daily Mail ahead of a Downing Street summit on internet pornography, says: ‘We’ve listened. We’ve fine-tuned Google Search to prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in our results’ … 
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Google today announced it’s adding a handy new feature to its Google Flight Search tool that allows users to find and book flights. Now, when viewing a flight on Google Flight Search on the web or your mobile device, you’ll be able to hit a small star icon that will save your flight to a “Save Flights” section. The tool will be nice for times when you don’t want to immediately book a flight but might want to view or book it at a later time. Saving the flight will make sure you can easily do so from a new Saved Flights section on any device:

When I’m signed in to my Google account on my mobile phone or tablet, and find a flight option I’m interested in  I click the star button to add it to my saved flights list… I can then access my saved flights on any device at any time by clicking the star icon on the Flight Search home page.

Your saved results won’t be static either. That means when returning Google will make sure your save flights have up to date pricing and any changes that might have occurred to the flight itinerary. You’ll notice the new save button in Flight Search on both the desktop and mobile starting today. 
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After a nearly eight year battle stemming from a lawsuit brought on by authors accusing Google of digitally scanning books without permission, a judge has now officially sided with Google and dismissed the case. Reuters reports:

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan accepted Google’s argument that its scanning of more than 20 million books for an electronic database, and making “snippets” of text available for online searches, constituted fair use.

“In my view, Google Books provide significant public benefits,” Chin wrote.

The ultimate decision was essentially that by scanning snippets of books to use with Google Books or in search, Google was providing more benefits to the authors than disadvantages. The judge is also quoted as calling the service “an essential research tool” that creates new income for authors and lets users discover content. GigaOM got the following statement from Google, but the Authors Guild is yet to speak out on the decision:
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I sometimes wonder whether future generations will do most of their travel sat at their PCs, as Google’s Trekker backpack takes us to more and more interesting places. Latest on the list is the romantic Italian city Venice, built on a set of more than 100 small islands, connected by a network of canals and bridges … 
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Just a few weeks ago, Pandora became the latest app to receive support for streaming via the Chromecast, as did Hulu Plus just before that. This left a couple of key holdouts, one of which being HBO Go. HBO Go has been rumored as coming to the Chromecast since the device’s launch, with HBO confirming earlier this summer that it was in talks to support the Chromecast in the “future.” It now looks as if the launch is not very far off.

As first noted by Droid Life, Google’s “Now Casting” support page has been updated to include HBO Go. It’s touted as a “new” app, along with Pandora and Hulu Plus. Oddly, however, there is no HBO icon and the description simply reads “none.” This makes it seem like Google’s support page was updated a bit prematurely, although it does signal that a launch is imminent and that the two are still in talks to work together. We wouldn’t be surprised to hear an official announcement from Google and HBO relatively soon.

At $35, the Chromecast is becoming even more enticing of an offer as Google continues to beef up the streaming selection to compete with the Apple TV and Roku.

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This afternoon, Google has updated its Google+ app for Android with a couple of new features and enhancements (via Droid Life). First off, the app now supports Android Beam. This feature will allow for users to share photos from within the Google+ app to other devices via NFC. The app also now supports DayDream. This is feature, which has been available in some third-party apps for a while, is essentially a screensaver for devices while they are being charged or placed in a dock. Now that the Google+ app supports this feature, it will work with pictures stored within the app.

What’s New:

• Photos now supports Android Beam, so you can share photos via NFC
• Photos also supports Daydream, so you can view your pics in screensaver mode when charging or docking your device
• Individual photo details are now available in the drop-down menu
• Opening “Locations” will automatically refresh your friends’ locations on the map

This update is a staged rollout, which means it may take a little while for it to rollout to every device. Keep an eye on the Play Store to see if your device has received the update.

In addition to updating its Android app, Google has also enhanced cover photos on the web version of Google+. Now, cover photos will show the entire image, as opposed to just a select portion. Photos are still the same size, so you don’t need to change anything in order to enhance your profile. 

We all know that Google is BIG, BIG, BIG, but just how big is Google these days? During a keynote at Ignition 2013, Business Insider CEO Henry Bloodroot presented a slide that shows Google on course to exceed the revenues of both magazines and newspapers this year. In fact, almost all of Google’s expected $60 billion in revenue will come from advertising this year.

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